Orland bus crash: Bus driver recalled as glue of her family

Talalelei Lealao-Taiao, who authorities have confirmed was the bus driver in Thursday’s fatal collision in Northern California, was a jovial woman who was the glue of her large, extended family, a cousin said.

Noel Elisaia of San Francisco said he was deeply saddened to hear the news of his “very sweet” cousin’s death last week.

“I felt hurt,” Elisaia said. “She and my other cousin are the ones that keep the family together. (She) called everybody, asked them how they are doing. If something comes up, like another funeral or anything, then we all get together.”

Glenn County Coroner’s officials on Tuesday confirmed the identities of four more victims in Thursday’s fiery collision in rural Orland that killed 10 people. The tragedy occurred after a FedEx 2007 Volvo truck crossed a median on Interstate 5 for unknown reasons, sideswiped a sedan and slammed into a charter bus transporting 44 high school students from Southern California to Humboldt State University for a college tour, officials said.

Both drivers, three adult chaperons and five students perished in the crash 100 miles north of Sacramento.

Family, friends and school officials have reportedly identified the others as Myvett’s fiancee Mattison Haywood; Jennifer Bonilla of Dorsey High School; Denise Gomez, 18, of Ánimo Inglewood Charter High School; Adrian Castro, 18, of El Monte High School; and Marisa Serrato, 17, of Norte Vista High School in Riverside.

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The San Luis Obispo-based Silverado Stages, the bus company Lealao-Taiao was working for, is continuing to cooperate with investigating agencies and “is working through their own loss of a valued employee, driver and friend,” said Jim Saunders, who was handling media calls for Silverado and is the regional claims manager for Lancer Insurance Co., on Tuesday.

Saunders declined to release any information about the bus driver’s employment for “various reasons, including privacy,” he said. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said she had a valid commercial driver’s license and had a clear record, other than a one-month suspension of her license in March 2004 for unknown reasons. Evans also reportedly had a clear record.

Lealao-Taiao’s mother and Elisaia’s father were among nine siblings in their large Samoan family and Lealao-Taiao, who was raised in Northern California, was one of two cousins who always brought the extended family together for special occasions, Elisaia said.

Lealao-Taiao always remembered her cousin’s birthday and would text him on that day each year, he said. They would often tease one another by calling each other “aunty” and “uncle,” a reference that they were both getting older, he said.

“I’m just going to miss her smile,” Elisaia said.

She had worked for years with SamTrans, a public transport agency around San Mateo before driving tour buses.

Lealao-Taiao was married, had two children and recently became a grandmother, Elisaia said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are continuing to conduct interviews, collect information and examine the vehicles involved in the crash to determine the probable cause, said NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway.

“Nothing has been ruled out,” he said Tuesday.

In addition to examining the contents of the FedEx truck to see whether there might have been any hazardous materials, they will also be looking at the medical records of the drivers and issues such as occupant protections and fire suppression of the bus, he said.

Holloway said the agency is interviewing quite a few students and is continuing to call for witnesses who may have heard or seen something to come forward by emailing witness@ntsb.gov, he said.

Green Dot Public Schools CEO Marco Petruzzi released a statement this week about the two students who were killed from Ánimo Inglewood Charter High School. Both students were seniors and would have been the first in their families to go to college, he said.

“One of the other students on the trip, who attends Ánimo Jackie Robinson Charter High School, returned home last Friday night and related to our staff how Ismael (Jimenez) busted open a window at the front of the bus as it was filling with smoke and people were getting burned,” Petruzzi said in a statement. “He started lifting kids out in an effort to save them. Ismael will be remembered as someone who forever affected the lives of young people he barely knew. He was indeed a hero.”

Jimenez was a talented young man who had a passion for art and was deeply committed to pursuing a career in art after college, Petruzzi said. Denise Gomez was described as “quick, bright, thoughtful and a quiet but strong leader” who was a member of the girls’ varsity soccer team, president of the Earth Club and editor of the school yearbook.

“She loved the progress that came with hard work and was determined to go to college to open new pathways for herself and her family,” he said.